Creative Crafting - Furniture Art!

We've had these very inexpensive IKEA bedside tables for several years now and I've always intended to paint them and make them a bit more special.

Now, since Miss Busy has asked me to paint her new (pre-loved) desk, I thought I'd have a practice first, using my bedside table.  Here's how it went!

1 - sanded lightly.

2 - painted with primer

3 - painted base colours

4 - worked base colours in to each other so there was a gradual gradient between colours

 5 - started painting my design...

6 - added all the finishing touches to create my bedside table art!

 I'm quite pleased with it for a first attempt and look forward to showing you the desk next!

Cornwall Adventure - arrival!

 Well, it's been a month since I last posted, and some of you might be wondering what happened and if we ever made it to Cornwall...

The good news is, we did!  We moved into our house on the 27th July and have been pretty busy getting the place sorted ever since then.  Here are a few pics of how it looked just a week and a half after moving in, so you can see how busy we must have been:

Another couple of weeks have gone by since these photos were taken, and things are looking even more together.  There are a lot fewer boxes lying around.  However, I won't bore you with any more pics for now.  You'll be able to see plenty of house pictures over the coming months as we gradually get everything looking the way we want it.

However, it's the Summer and we're in Cornwall, so it hasn't all been sorting out the house.  There has been a lot of this too:

Dinner by the sea at Polkerris

Off to Camp Bestival, Dorset

Kayaking on Thursday evenings at Porthpean

An amazing walk and swimming in the sea down by Land's End

Beautiful Fowey

Sunset swims at Par Sands

Walks and dinners down at Charlestown.

Now I've just got to get my earning situation sorted so we can confidently spend what we need to on the house, and upgrading to an electric car.  More on that as I get it set up.

Cornwall Adventure - nearly there!

Just a quick follow up from yesterday. I still don't know what was going on, and we haven't exchanged yet, but we have been reassured that our buyer is still intending to go ahead, we are still good to move next week, and I've gone ahead and applied to High School in St Austell for Mr Build-It and Miss Busy.

When rescue goes wrong

This is not a happy story. You can skip to the end to get the short version, but it's a bit gruesome. Seagulls are a pain, but nobody likes a cannibal. 

We had a baby seagull stuck in an area of the school roof today. He couldn't get out, had no water, and his parents didn't visit all day.

So ... after school I heroically donned a coat and cycle helmet (protection from mama seagull) and climbed out onto the roof access. On my way I found another baby seagull (dead). I climbed down, talking reassuringly to baby seagull and to parent seagulls, who were eyeing me with great suspicion from other areas of the roof and flapping alarmingly. It turned out baby seagull wasn't half-dead as we had thought, and made a valiant attempt not to be caught. As I climbed back up the ladder with the bird in one hand, I reassured the parents that we'd put it safely outside for them. I handed the bird in through the window, then went back to retrieve the dead one from the roof drainage channel. 

We decided it would be best to put the baby bird outside the school fencing. That way, if it was still on the ground tomorrow,  it wouldn't be trapped with 200 curious children. After some consideration,  we put it in the staff carpark, near enough that it's parents on the roof would be able to see it and hear it squawking once we'd gone. 

To our horror, as we got back upstairs to check on him through the window, we could see another adult gull pecking the poor little chick to death and begin eating him.

 It was not a happy end to the rescue, and I added his body to the one I found on the roof and popped them both in the bin.

Cornwall Adventure - The Saga Continues

 

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that my little puny little problems are not the end of the world.  Not for me, not for my family and certainly not everybody else.  

Yes, they are stressful.

Quite a lot stressful on days like today.

But really quite minor when you compare it to what people go through who are worried about putting food on the table, or who are worried about whether they are safe in their homes due to war-mongering.

We've made the exciting decision to move to Cornwall.  We accepted an offer on our house and found a house that we liked in very quick time!  We checked out the local High Schools and were happy to choose one, with spaces, in easy walking distance.  We had a bit of a hiccough when we finally received the survey report combined with some missing documents in the searches, and were worried we might have to pull out (worried enough that we lined up a property to rent).  However, this resolved itself when the missing documents were found.  We're all ready to go ahead with exchanging contracts (which means we can put our school application in), and have the removal arranged for next week, a new fridge-freezer and beds ordered to be delivered on moving day.  Then, today, we get a message from the solicitor, "the buyer is not ready to exchange" (unspecified delay).  So we are very much on edge.  Is it that there's a 't' not crossed or an 'i' not dotted?  Is it something that can be quickly resolved in the next three days?  Or, is it that she doesn't want to buy any more?

We've really no idea, but we need to know by Friday, as if the sale isn't going ahead, we need to cancel our removal and work out what we are going to do.  

All being well, it's just a solicitor or paperwork glitch and can be quickly fixed.

If it's more than that, and we have to remarket the house, then we might lose out on our purchase and have to start all over again.  This will mean Hubby has to find somewhere to stay down in Cornwall on his own (he's already started his new job), and we'll have to work out what to do about schooling for the children - we've already told the High School here that they will be going.  

In the long run though, it's going to be worth it.  We will end up down in Cornwall together, even if there's a frustrating delay of a few months.  We will still get to play on beaches, walk on cliffs and enjoy the Cornwall life...  We can cope with this, and come out stronger for it.

Fingers crossed for a quick resolution!!!!

Cornwall Adventure 3

After an exploration of central Truro (I loved the Art Cafe! - yummy avocado, egg and bacon on sourdough - yummmmm), we have beetled along to Camping and Caravanning Club - Sennen Site this evening. 

It's a bit breezy with a gusty draft whipping in from the North, and we were a bit chilly. However, after a Korma we set out west to see the sunset on the beach. This microadventure was only about 20 minutes walk but the outcome was stunning.  This... is my cathedral.:

Cornwall Adventure 2

After a frosty sunrise at Camping and Caravanning Club Veryan site, we headed to Perranporth for the beach today. 

Though the sun was shining it wasn't that warm, though Miss Busy was determined to go in the water. We started with hot drinks outside the Watering Hole while Miss Busy and Mr Build-It got started on ambitious sandcastle building. 

After a bit, when it seemed to have warmed up, hubby headed to the campervan to fetch the wetsuits and then I headed to Pickwicks to collect fish and chips. We sat by the big rock on the beach to eat our lunch and then the other three went for a dip - not me for a change - I was too cold! Miss Busy was a bit surprised by the strength of the waves and glad to have her dad there to grab hold of.

Later, after picking up some groceries in Newquay, we drove along the coast and stopped to enjoy an ice-cream at Bedruthan Steps. Its breathtakingly beautiful there. A fabulous cliff-top spot for just chilling and finding your perspective on the world.

Cornish Adventure 1

Walked from St Just-in-Roseland to St Mawes today. The weather is warm but grey and breezy. The kind of weather where you need your jacket on when you stop, but soon take it off again when you get walking.

This is a beautiful walk through fields along the river, with bluebells and other wildflowers I need to learn the names of scattered all around. The tide is out far enough that there are big sections you can walk along the shell-strewn foreshore too, which is where I'm sitting to write this, while the children play on a conveniently sited tyre swing.

St Mawes is in a beautiful spot. Multi-million pound homes along the shore and a very Joules vibe. I felt distinctly underdressed and scruffy! St Just is a riot of flowers, camelia  rhododendron and daffodils being the cheerleaders at this time of year.